Becoming A Federal Judge
By Monty Rainey (05/19/03)
I recently had the pleasure of hearing Judge Lee Yeakel, newly appointed Federal Judge for the Texas Western District, Austin area Federal Court, relate the process he experienced in becoming a federal judge. I found the story quite interesting and informative.
To begin the process, when a vacancy occurs, judges must submit their resumes for review. Here in Texas, the review board is a 25 member board which is selected by the State Senators and who sit on the review board for life. At the time of Judge Yeakels’ appointment, there were vacancies in Austin, El Paso, San Antonio and Beaumont. Judge Yeakel and one other candidate were selected for consideration to fill the Austin position and their names were then submitted to the State Senators, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn. Judge Yeakel then went on to Washington for an interview with the two Senators.
As both Texas Senators are Republicans, they make the final selection and submit the candidate to the President for approval, before the name goes before the Senate for final approval. In a case where there are opposing parties, for instance, when Bill Clinton was president, with Texas having two Republican Senators, the selection would have been made by a 15 member panel of Democratic Senators from the Texas State Senate. There is a similar panel in all states with the exception of Nebraska, which has a unicameral form of state legislature.
In the case of Texas and Judge Yeakel, as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson is the senior senator, the final decision was hers to make. Once the State’s Senators make their recommendation, the President rarely rejects their candidate. The candidate then must go before the Senate for approval. The Senate examines a full background investigation supplied by the FBI.
Congratulations to Judge Lee Yeakel for his recent appointment of Federal Judge. The State of Texas has a fine man in this position. Judge Yeakel served previously on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin.
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